Antonov
An-2 Colt in Detail

Despite being one of the icons of post-war civilian aviation, the
large, fabric-covered An-2 biplane remains firmly rooted in the 1920s.

The An-2 was designed by Oleg Antonov as an agricultural
aircraft for the post-war Soviet rural economy. The requirement was
issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in May 1946 to
design an aircraft to replace the the aging Polikarpov Po-2. It was the first task
assigned to the newly formed formed Antonov OKB.

The prototype, carrying a designation SKh-1was first flown in August
1947. After successful trials, series production commenced in 1949.
About 5000 aircraft were produced in the Soviet Union during the 1950s.
It had more than proved its worth not only in as crop-spraying
aircraft, but also as paratroop transport, glider tug, navigation
trainer, and utility transport.

In 1960, only after the bulk of the production had ended in the
country of origin, the production was transferred to PZL in Poland. It
were the Poles that eventually made the An-2 to an aviation icon that we know
today, turning out a whopping 11 650 additional aircraft between 1960
and 1989. It became the most numerous export product in the history of
Polish aviation industry. 80% of the production went to Soviet Union,
with the rest provided to Albania, Afghanistan, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, China, East Germany, Yugoslavia, North Korea, Rumania,
Tanzania, Vietnam, Cuba and Hungary. An-2 was also produced in smaller
numbers in East Germany and China.

The appearance of this biplane in 1947 was widely misread. Western intelligence deemed
the An-2 as an obsolete airframe unsuitable for modern large-scale
production. The reality proved them too judgemental. Undisturbed by
what others might think of its looks, Antonov delivered the smallest,
lightest and most efficient solution to the task at hand. The subsequent
outstanding success of the An-2 can be attributed to the many virtues of
his
design: extremely safe (if heavy) flying characteristics, STOL, high
reliability in the field, low maintenance costs and the capacious
single-bay fuselage with good cargo capacity.

The walkaround

Looking at this hulk of a biplane is interesting in many ways. What
especially catches attention are all those industry-size rivets popping
out of the massive hunks of surface - bringing to mind those old Airfix
kits. Also, when you see how some gallons of seeping oil have done a
magnificent work of post-shadowing the already comparatively gaping
panel lines. It's a massive piece of engineering in any respect!

Frank Spahr and I have taken these photographs independently in two
different locations on three different occasions. The over 30 images
have been divided into three sections below to facilitate faster
downloads.

An-2 variants

Due the general naming practice in the Soviet
industry, sorting out all the variant designations, their precedence on
the production line, and the detailed configuration differences between
them is a mammoth task which lies far beyond my research possibilities
for this article. The source of the difficulty lies in that the Soviets
have been using subtype designations to describe the intended purpose
of the aircraft rather than technical configuration of the
airframe.

In determining versions of the An-2, one is not aided by any
significant visual differences. No airplane in history has
been in continuous production essentially unchanged as long as the
An-2. The only two "major" An-2 airframe changes over half a
century were the introduction of squared-off vertical tail on the An-2M
and the enghine change in the An-3 resulting in a new nose. Both changes did not survive
long on the production line.

An-2T Standard utility aircraft for the Military (10 equipped
troops) and Aeroflot (1948)

An-2P Basic general-purpose version with 14 lightweight seats and
a soundproof cabin. The Polish version produced at Mielec since 1968
featured a new propeller and spinner, more attractive passenger
cabin with glass wool sound proofing and 12 upholstered forward
facing-seats.

An-2S Flying Ambulance with 6 stretchers (1949)

An-2TD Parachute training aircraft for up to 14 parachute jumpers
on tip-up seats
along each side of the cabin (1950)

An-2SKh Agricultural version with 1400 litre tank and spray bars
or centre line duct.

An-2W - General-purpose and maritime patrol floatplane with twin
underwing floats (1951). Also produced after 1962 in Poland under
the designation An-4.

An-2L - Floatplane designated for fire fighting. (1964)

An-2PP - Firefighting
seaplane version with floats fitted with special scoops capable of
uplifting 630 litres of water per float (1961).

An-2ZA - high-altitude
meteorological research version with supercharger for
high-altitude performance and an additional observation canopy on
the rear upper rear fuselage (1948)

An-2NAK - Night
observation and artillery fire control development
of the An-2F, never produced in quantity (1949)

An-2PF - photo cartography aircraft (1974)

An-2R - Polish improved crop-spraying version with 1300 litre
glassfibre-reinforced epoxy-resin tank and revised spraying
equipment with
better dispensing system that could be operated by a pilot alone. (1961)

An-2PK - Polish special duty transport used for operations
in the artic (1973).

An-2TPS - PZL-produced ambulance version (1974)

An-3 - Development of the basic agricultural version of An-2 with
a 1450hp Glushenkov TVD-20 turboprop fitted in a longer nose and a
chemical tank of 2200 litres. It was produced in limited numbers
(1981)

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